Learning & Adaptive Management
Learning or knowledge management, supported at national and decentralised levels, engages in continuous learning and reflection and is thus able to adapt to changing circumstances and demands (based on experience).
Contents
Why is it important for sustainable services at scale?
Building a learning sector with the capacity to continuously innovate, evolve and adapt based on evidence is a must for delivering sustainable services and requires the capacity and willingness to address failure, do things together, better and differently.
Ideally, learning takes place at all levels and brings people together at each level. Alliances can link learning initiatives horizontally and vertically (between districts and national level) to help ensure that lessons from practice feed into policy guidelines and that tools are shared with those responsible for service delivery.
Learning alliances
Learning alliances can help:
- connect research to policies and practice
- scale up innovative approaches
- coordinate responsibility, information and knowledge
- consolidate and disseminate knowledge
The main benefits of learning alliances:
- support for complex problem solving
- harmonising and coordinating sector actors
Resource centres
Resource centres and learning alliances should address real problems that people want to solve and aim to make information available to help individuals and groups address specific needs.
Examples
Many countries have formal learning and training programmes linked to government structures and civil society or government-supported resource centres.
- Gujarat, India: public sector resource centres at sub-district level support local panchayats’ in all aspects of system management and act as a focal point for knowledge and contacts.
- South Africa: WIN-SA is a network of organisations that focus on improving knowledge sharing in the water and sanitation sector, targeting decision makers in government and non-government water services sector.
- Andhra Pradesh (India) and Burkina Faso: WASHCost learning alliances bring the findings from research into life-cycle costing for sustainable water and sanitation services in rural and peri-urban areas.
Other field experiences
The following project(s) are using learning & adaptive management methods.
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 Communication Knowledge Management Initiative |
Recommendations
Incentives: People need incentives to participate. ‘Talk shops’ will not keep people on board. Learning alliances should be formed around real problems that people want to solve.
Facilitating resource centres and alliances: A good facilitator encourages interaction between formal meetings. Facilitation comes at a cost; some supporting agency has to commit time, money and capacity to the learning processes and the actors in the initiative.
Adapting to local contexts: Resource centres and learning alliances take different forms in different contexts. Key elements include:
- identifying and involving stakeholders – good stakeholder mapping is essential
- a participatory process for developing a shared vision, objectives and activities
- communication channels, process documentation, monitoring and feedback
Selected references, tools and templates
- Smits, Stef; Moriarty, Patrick and Sijbesma, Christine (eds) (2007).Learning alliances : Scaling up innovations in water, sanitation and hygiene. Delft, The Netherlands, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.
- Tripartite Partnership, Ghana. 2010. The TPP Learning Alliance Approach (January 2010). [online] Resource Centre Network Ghana Strategy Paper.
- Verhagen, J., Butterworth, J. and Morris, M.A., 2008. Learning alliances for integrated and sustainable innovations in urban water management, Waterlines, 27 (2), pp. 116-24.
- Learning and adaptive management building block summary sheet
Other links
- WASH Sustainability Charter in English and French.
- WEDC Conference: Learning alliances for integrated sustainable innovations in urban water management
Acknowledgements
- Learning & adapting. Water Services That Last. IRC.
